FSA funding requirement 3.2% under proposal
Regulator says higher-than-expected income from penalties allows further discount to fees.
Funding for the Financial Services Authority will total £559.8m for 2012/13, coming in £18.6m under the original proposed total.
The regulator originally predicted it would need about £578.4m in funding from regulated firms.
However, the latest figure still represents an 11.9 per cent rise compared to the £500.5m funding requirement of 2011/12.
The increase will be split evenly among all fee-payers except for those paying only the minimum regulatory fee.
According to the regulator, 42 per cent of authorised firms will only need to pay the minimum fee, which will remain unchanged at £1,000.
The regulator was able to reduce its funding requirement from what it predicted by cutting potential IT expenditure and the return of money reserved for dealing with extreme macro-economic and regulatory events.
Financial penalties came in at £70.7m, up about 20 per cent on forecasts of £50.7m. This will go towards funding the regulator, bringing the total amount needed from regulated companies down further to £489.1m.
Chris Hannant, policy director at the Association of IFAs, recently criticised the FSA’s consultation process in an interview with FTAdviser.